Texas Tech names former QB Kliff Kingsbury Head Coach

The 33 year old coach is best known for working with Case Keenum at Houston and most recently being the Offensive Coordinator for Texas A&M directing Manziel to a Heisman Thropy. Clearly this is a risky move hiring someone without any head coaching experience but I think their fans would rather see this than hiring another retread.

Honestly i think its a great hire. The guy has so much energy and im sure players will be excited to play with him. If he can get good staff together he should be fine. Any doubters out there should look up Fitzgerald at NW and the job he has done

He's best known for looking exactly like Ryan Gosling. This must make him the most attractive HC in college football, no?

Seriously though, great hire. A&M fans loved him and attributed their offensive success (and even much of the success of Johnny Manziel, as he was also QB coach) to him. He brings a lot of energy to that program, has great ties to it, and his youth could help him recruit, I would think. If he can get a good staff together at Tech they could be on the rise very soon.

How many good QBs went on to be really good coaches? Or QBs period. You have Spurrier. Harbaugh certainly seems to be trending that way. Sean Payton was a bad QB. You'd think if the skills translated so easily you'd see more.

Who cares? A great coach leaves his program in a position of strength. Look at how LSU has thrived since Saban left. Before he got there, they were perpetually mediocre. Now they are a national power. Stanford hasn't had Harbaugh for two years and they're still outstanding, and could stay that way if Shaw sticks it out there.

I would have had zero problem with Harbaugh spending a few years at Michigan and then taking off. He'd probably be replaced by Hoke, so we'd have a similar group to what we have now... But with a lot more talent in the cupboard and a lot more success in the recent past.

I took a road trip to College Station in '02 to see Texas A&M play a home game. It was a great experience, but the added bonus was the magnificent (if defense-free) game they played against Tech, back when Leach was still just a novelty. Tech won 48-47 in OT on a brilliant Kingsbury fade after A&M missed its extra point. He was good.

No question this is a great hire for Texas Tech -- hot-shot rising coordinator, young and charasmatic, popular former player. A+ for them.

As for Kingsbury, I'm not so sure. Yes, it's pretty damn hard to turn down the coaching job at your alma mater, especially when you haven't yet been a head coach. At some point, you've got to earn your head-coaching bones - and what better place to do that, than a school where you're already beloved, you know the recruiting base, and the AD and alums will give you a long leash to succeed?

That said ... if Kingsbury had stayed at A&M and guided their offense to another year or two like this one (a good assumption w/Manziel), a lot of schools with "destination" head-coaching jobs, better national exposure, and higher ceilings than T. Tech would've been backing up their money trucks at Kingsbury's door to make him their head coach. Then again, if he succeeds at Tech the way, say, Rich Rod succeeded at his alma mater, the big schools will still come calling -- and at that point he'll have the head-coaching experience that'll make him more likely to succeed.